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In the May issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly, on sale now, head of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons [RACS], Michael Grigg concedes there’s a culture of sexism in Australian surgery.
“People say silly little things like, ‘don’t be a princess’,” he says. “I don’t think they are aware they are engaging in sexual harassment. I think awareness of things people say may be one of the positive things that comes out of this.”
His comments come after Dr Gabrielle McMullin (pictured above) said female surgeons should stay silent about sexual harassment to protect their careers.
Dr McMullin was speaking in defence of Caroline Tan, a studious trainee surgeon working in a large teaching hospital in Melbourne, who was victim to an unwanted sexual encounter that irrevocably derailed her medical career.
Dr Tan was invited by her supervising neurosurgeon Chris Xenos to his private rooms for some extra tuition after her shift ended. It was late, but having refused previous requests and not wishing to appear unappreciative, Caroline decided to go.
The pair met in the carpark and made small talk about artwork inside before entering his room. Caroline’s back was turned when Xenos suddenly came up behind her, spun her around and embraced her. He kissed her on the lips, put his hand down her breast and pinned her against his desk. As Caroline twisted in a bid to free herself from his grasp, she saw his erect penis sticking out of his fly.
“Do you want to go down on this?” he asked, as she escaped his grasp. Heart racing and mortified, she blurted, “How could you?” and fled the room.
Ten years on from the incident and despite winning a high-profile sexual harassment case against Xenos at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, Dr Tan says her career has still not recovered. Despite her best efforts, she has never secured a job in the public health system – even on occasions where she’s been the only applicant.
Citing Dr Tan’s experience, Dr McMullin said she now freely advised trainee female surgeons to submit to the unwanted sexual advances of their superiors rather than lodge a complaint if they wished to get ahead in their careers.
“[Dr Tan’s] career was ruined by this one guy asking for sex on this night,” she told the ABC at the time. “And realistically, she would have been much better to have given him a blow-job on that night. What I tell my trainees is that, if you are approached for sex, probably the safest thing to do in terms of your career is to comply with the request.”
“The complainant gets a terrible time,” Dr McMullin told The Weekly. “In Caroline (Dr Tan)’s case, the College of Surgeons never gave her any support. They made her continue working with her abuser and he would say things to her like, ‘just get over it’. They withheld her exams for a year and then she couldn’t get a job.”
Chris Xenos, meanwhile, is still working as a neurosurgeon at Monash Medical Centre in Melbourne. Since the court case, he’s understood to have served as acting head of his department. In court, he denied Dr Tan’s version of events and accused her of making it up to distract from her sub-standard work.
Supported by colleagues and friends, who described him in court as “an exemplary role model and devoted to his wife and children”, Xenos was nevertheless found by the judge to have “deliberately and falsely denied the harassment” and “attempted to completely smear [Dr Tan’s] character”. Media reports have since feted him for his work operating on sick kids.
Today many have taken aim at RACS to enforce change.
Speaking to The Weekly RACS President Michael Grigg concedes there is work to be done.
He is acting on the problem by establishing an expert advisory group to deal with concerns of bullying, harassment and discrimination. One of the first issues to tackle, he says, is education.
To read the full story buy the latest Australian Women’s Weekly, on sale now.
